1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid cartridge mountable to a liquid jet apparatus, such as an ink jet printer, and a liquid jet apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 59-215870 discloses an ink cartridge as a liquid cartridge mountable to a liquid jet apparatus such as an ink jet printer. As it is illustrated in FIGS. 11A and 11B, in the ink cartridge disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 59-215870, an ink bag 122 is incorporated in an ink cartridge 110.
When the ink cartridge 110 is mounted to a printer as the liquid jet apparatus, a hollow needle 140 provided in a printer body pierces through a rubber stopper 126 to establish a communication between the ink cartridge 110 and the printer. Accordingly, an ink can be extracted from the ink bag 122. When the ink cartridge 110 is attached to or detached from the printer, a little amount of ink may be leaked through a point of the hollow needle 140 or the rubber stopper 126. The leaked ink may adhere to a surface of the rubber stopper 126 to get a user's hands dirty while the user handles the ink cartridge 110 and to contaminate parts included in the printer body.
Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 59-215870 discloses the rubber stopper 126 attached to the ink cartridge 110 and a capillary channel 127 provided around the rubber stopper 126. An ink absorber 116 communicating with the capillary channel 127 is provided inside the ink cartridge 110. Accordingly, the ink which leaks through the hollow needle 140 and adheres to the rubber stopper 126, comes through the capillary channel 127 to be absorbed by the ink absorber 116.
In the ink cartridge 110 disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 59-215870, the leaked ink passes through many slit-like capillary channels 127 provided around the rubber stopper 126. When the capillary channels 127 divided into thin channels having a strong capillary force are used, the ink inside the capillary channels 127 is held by the capillary force and thus the ink may remain in the capillary channels 127. Thus, a problem arises that, in a case where the capillary channels 127 are left as they are in the above state, the residual ink may be stuck to close the capillary channels 127 and the ink may remain on a surface of the rubber stopper 126.
When a user uses a continuous printing mode and a high quality sheet, there is a case where the user preliminarily exchanges an ink cartridge with a new ink cartridge before starting the continuous operation of the printer for a long time in order to avoid an ink shortage while the printer is subjected to a continuous operation for a long time. In such a case, the ink cartridge that has not been used-up may be loaded to the printer again when printing is performed in a small quantity. In that case, the ink cartridge may be left for a long period of time before the ink cartridge is loaded to the printer again.
If the ink cartridge is left for a long period of time, as described above, the ink held within a narrow space such as the capillary channel may be stuck to close the capillary channel. If the ink cartridge in the above state is used again, the ink adhering to a surface of the ink cartridge is not guided to an ink absorber. In some cases, the ink may leak outside the ink cartridge.
In Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 59-215870, a rubber stopper 126 is attached to an opening formed in a container composing an ink cartridge 110 and the capillary channels 127 are formed around the rubber stopper 126. Therefore, the ink absorber 116 is positioned so as to contact the rubber stopper 126 inside the opening. As a result, there is such a problem that a free degree in designing the rubber stopper 126 and a neighborhood of the opening degrades.